Smalltalk
by BoyFlea
Summary: These are a series of tiny scenes and conversations that take place between Hermione and Ron during the course of the first six books. These events happen while JK Rowling is busy with Harry Potter's tale and set out to prove that they love each other.
1. Falling in place

Smalltalk.

Falling in place.

"No wonder she hasn't got any friends!" snorted Ron to Harry as they walked across the courtyard.

Hermione pushed past Ron and stormed towards the girl's toilets. Her eyes were stinging.

…

Some girls came and went, but no one noticed the sniffling of a first year girl hiding within a toilet cubicle. They had, she suspected, gotten used to it by now. This was hardly the first time.

"I'll show them. This is a school!" she sobbed. Hermione lost track of time.

In her mind she replaying the countless conversations she had initiated; chastising herself she realised it always to be about homework or a book she had read. Eventually she stopped and blew hew nose resolutely.

"Everyone just plays games and laughs. How on Earth are they going to become any good playing silly silly games."

"Are you ok?" came Parvati's muffled voice outside the door. "Hello?"

"Yeah," said Hermione airily. "Just… you know."

Hermione heard footsteps fade and she realised she was alone. Part of her was happy. Now she could really rant and rail against them. Hermione strode out of the cubicle and to the sink to dry her eyes.

"They don't know what it's like! This whole world so full of magic! We are so privileged! If they had a proper muggle upbringing then they'd realise just how wonderful it is to be here!"

Guilt flooded her. Her parents doted on her and her old muggle friends were lovely. Hermione did not regret her upbringing yet part of her was jealous of Ron and his rich magical family. All poor and scruffy, but his brothers were lovely.

Sighing, she turned to her reflection.

"Well, ok. Perhaps I could slow down on the book-reading. Perhaps." Hermione frowned. "Oh unless something changes soon, I'll be like this forever!"

On cue, a filthy great troll crashed through the doorway.

Disclaimer:-

This will be the first in a series of tiny "off-camera" shorts primarily between Hermione and Ron spanning all books to date.

All Harry Potter characters and references are solely owned by JK Rowling. I just love the setting.


	2. First Words

Smalltalk.

First words.

"So how is he?" asked Hermione.

"He'll be ok. Harry's quite tough," beamed Ron. They felt victorious. Lord Voldemort had been banished, Professor Quirrel had been exposed and, apart from the intra-house cup, they felt happy.

"Well, so are you Ron. You took quite a knock on that chessboard."

"Ah, but it was only chess," said Ron smugly. Hermione arched her eyebrows at him.

"Well, ok maybe those tests were never meant to be fatal. Still hurt though," added Ron as he subconsciously rubbed his shoulder, still bandaged beneath his robes.

Hermione smiled. "Even so, Harry was brave to face you-know-who." She noticed Ron deflate a bit.

"You were brave too of course," she rallied.

"Well," smirked Ron. His ears were glowing red again. This happened a lot lately, especially around Hermione.

Hermione turned to the stairwell and ambled up a few steps. She turned and looked down on Ron. "Are you going to wait for Harry? I think Professor Dumbledore's seeing him."

Ron dawdled as his mind niggled him about her superior tone of voice. Hermione had become more easy-going since the troll incident, but ever since that day they had first met in the train carriage he had always felt annoyed at her patronising tone. This itself seemed a little harsh to him: since seeing Hermione flee from him crying, Ron had taken stock of his attitude to her and resolved to try harder to be friends – if only for Harry's sake of course. And the first step to friendship was being open and honest.

"I might do. Where are you off to?" Ron placed his foot on the bottom step without thinking.

"Back to the common room perhaps. Mind you I did promise Hannah I'd see her too," said Hermione absently, taking another three steps sedately.

"Erm…" flustered Ron. He stood rooted not sure why Hermione would be more fun to be with that Harry. That and a nagging obligation sat heavy in his mind.

"Sorry Ron?" asked Hermione calling from near the top of the stairwell.

"Hang on Hermione!" called Ron and raced up the stairs to her.

"What is it?" she turned to him at the top of the stairwell and appraised this lovable idiot. His grin made her own mouth beam. While Harry was brave, honest and kind at least Ron could be relied upon for impulsive and irrational acts of daftness.

"I forgot to say thankyou," said Ron earnestly. Hermione blinked in shock. Something inside her wanted to sit down and have a cup of tea. Something further down did a somersault.

"Sorry?" she asked.

"Thankyou. Yes, me and Harry did some brave things, but I would never have got past that creeping vine thing without you. Harry rubbed it in earlier and I realised I never did thank you properly."

Hermione was agog. Resisting the urge to tell him what the creeping vine was she fished in her mind for things to say.

"Aw. Erm, bet you couldn't say that again in front of Harry," she managed. They grinned at each other.

"There's lots I'd say to you, even if Harry was here!" said Ron with some urgency in his voice.

"Oh yes? Like what?" grinned Hermione.

Ron's mind froze. Somewhere inside him something wanted to shout out. This small voice inside wanted to try and understand Hermione but he was not really sure how she would react – it had taken half a year to get Hermione to loosen up enough to talk to about quidditch and chocolate frogs. Anything more personal could make her run away again.

Hermione's smile waned when Ron did not react immediately. Was Ron really able to only talk when Harry was here? Or did Ron lack the vocabulary to talk about life beyond chocolate and broomsticks.

"Well…" croaked Ron. His mind was pestering him now and suggesting wild subjects of conversation from brooms, chocolate, chess and Harry.

"It's ok Ron. Thankyou for saying thankyou anyway." Hermione's mind, as usual with Ron, took pity on the boy in front of her and saved him from further embarrassment.

Then Harry appeared.

Ron turned away from Hermione and grinned down. As Ron and Harry called to each other something inside Hermione's mind finally got heard and something warm and syrupy exploded in her chest and trickled down inside her. Ron had been nice to her at last – genuine and sincere! Grinning she joined the boys as true friends.

Disclaimer:-

Boyflea says:- Deliberate slow-start to this series to allow me to rotate points of view. Thanks all for your interest and patience.

This will be the first in a series of tiny "off-camera" shorts primarily between Hermione and Ron spanning all books to date.

All Harry Potter characters and references are solely owned by JK Rowling. I just love the setting.


	3. Petrified

Smalltalk.

Petrified.

"Where's Ron?" asked Harry.

The dormitory was quiet without him.

Dean and Seamus exchanged looks. Dean piped up "Hospital wing."

"Yeah, Peeves said he's gone to look up Hermione's skirt," smirked Seamus.

Harry smiled at this break in tension. The rumours about the Chamber of Secrets were making everyone on edge: Hermione had been petrified by the Slytherin heir and Hogwarts looked likely to close.

Harry was glad that his friends were talking to him again.

"Typical Ron," joked Harry. The three of them smiled happily but their hearts were elsewhere.

The late afternoon sunlight came in through the hospital ward windows. Ron sat in his usual spot at Hermione's frozen side. Madam Pomfrey had allowed him free visiting hours to reward his persistence. His frequent visits had begun in shock that had given way to apparent nonchalance. Ron had provided more excuses for these visits than Madam Pomfrey supposed Argus Filch had heard from wayward pupils! They had begun with the usual progress checks and now Ron had settled into a routine of bringing homework to Hermione and whispering his notes to her. "I read that this works, honest!" he had cried in earnest. Shaking her head, Madam Pomfrey had vowed not to question his behaviour any longer.

Of course this was not unusual for friends and relatives of coma victims and the like, she reflected from her station as her eyes watched Ron unpack his books. Something deeply sad resonated within her heart as she returned to stocktaking the medicine request forms before updating the patient report diary. Sadly Hermione's entry was another simple ditto annotation.

Ron sat with his three parchments of notes. His work had improved as he strived to focus to learn for Hermione's sake. Lavender Brown had joked about this devotion in the common room and the pair had not spoken since Ron's rather loud retort.

As he tried to balance his bundle of work on her bed the top sheet slide onto Hermione's stomach. Ron gingerly moved his hand to retrieve it but paused. Hermione was completely frozen, clothing and all. Ron's had wanted to touch her again. His hand wavered above her and, of all the parts he could touch, he always touched her hand: clenched in frozen pain it was always stone cold but every visit he hoped it would be warm and alive. Closing his eyes he reached up and held her hand. The coldness of her hand dashed his diminished hopes again.

Ron sighed and picked up the top parchment again but could not read it. His stinging eyes were blurry with tears. Wiping his tears away with his sleeve he was dumbfounded by this latest and unexpected development. His brain fought for a reason which his mouth provided all by itself.

"What if you never come back?" he whispered carelessly.

Ron sat and thought briefly. Uncertain yet dark futures flashed through his mind.

"We would never speak again. You would never tell me off again. I… I would never see you smile again. Or hear you laugh. Oh bloody hell Hermione, who's going to help me with my homework! I'm going to pass out doing this much work! Look at my hands!" Ron stared at his shaking hands in shock. Madam Pomfrey looked up and Ron realised he had been shouting.

"Sorry," said Ron guiltily as he caught the nurse's disapproving stare.

Ron turned back to Hermione. "Look, I had better make a move. Old Pomfrey's giving me evils again," and Ron stood up collecting his homework.

He stooped nervously over her. "Get well soon, ok?" he whispered. Checking no-one was watching, Ron kissed Hermione's forehead and raced out of the ward.

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Disclaimer:-

Boyflea says:-

Big hugs to the loyal fanbase and a big thankyou to Taya – yeah my spellchecker keeps saying that too. J

Sorry about the delay, but until book 6 had been read, there was simply no way I'd come near the site and have suprises spoiled! ;)

And thankyou all for your interest. Spread the word, read my old stories etc. Give an old man a reason to keep on writing. ;)

Boyflea said before:-

This will be the first in a series of tiny "off-camera" shorts primarily between Hermione and Ron spanning all books to date.

Boyflea maintains:-

All Harry Potter characters and references are solely owned by JK Rowling. I just love the setting.


	4. Cat and Mouse

Smalltalk.

Cat and Mouse.

Hermione turner back the time-turner. People blurred backward around her and now, back in the common room, She stayed in the dark shadows watching herself and Ron bicker.

Two hours ago Hermione and Ron had ended their friendship over a cat and a rat.

Yet two hours ago and now were the same moment for Hermione.

It had ranked as a good stinker of an arguement. All the ingredients of stubborn denial, childish reasonings and a sprinkling of name-calling had served up a wonderous feast of destruction. Yet watching the argument, Hermione was chastising her old self rather than Ron. She should know better, after all Ron was just a boy.

As old Hermione stormed off, old Ron stared at the slammed door. The old Ron stormed off to see old Harry and rekindle old arguments.

Hermione lingered on that moment Ron stared at the door. What was he thinking?

"Then again, what had I been thinking?" she whispered.

Sneaking out to her alternate lesson, Hermione did not focus that well. In fact at the end of the lesson her margins were full of doodles of broomsticks.

"At least none of them were skewering lovehearts," she smirked. Perhaps it was her alternate self sending her messages, or her own subconscious. Some less cynical people would say it was her heart but Hermione was never one to listen to such gossip.

Being in two places simultaneously yet sticking to only one timeline had been causing Hermione to sometimes lose focus a lot. Professor McGonnagal had said she was suffering exhaustion when this was happening, though Hermione's own research in the library had discovered that time-travel had many inherent dangers, even if you did obey all those rules of conduct.

So currently "old" Hermione was continuing on her sniping at Ron two floors down. "Travelling" Hermione – she reasoned that to keep track these labels would help – would always go into her lesson knowing what old Hermione was doing, yet old Hermione never knew what travelling Hermione was doing. Sometimes she wondered if her past self was interfering more than her travelling self could ever do. Right now, Hermione was sensing herself hating Ron and lamenting her actions.

To act knowing you were acting foolishly was worse than not knowing how to act, and yet as she made her mistakes two floors down, her regrets were eating her in this lesson.

As the two timelines converged once more, Hermione snuck back in behind Ron and Harry.

"Bloody hell! How do you keep doing that!" snarled Ron.

"Sorry Ron," she said dully, her voice a hoarse whisper as if Hermione had spent the past three hours crying.

Harry shot her a quizzical glance. Then he reasoned that Hermione was an extrodinary girl – and he had problems figuring out the ordinary kind - so let it go.

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Disclaimer:-

Boyflea says:-

Finally found the angle back in – a variation of the flashback.

And thankyou all for your interest. Spread the word, read my old stories etc. Give an old man a reason to keep on writing. ;)

Boyflea said before:-

This will be the first in a series of tiny "off-camera" shorts primarily between Hermione and Ron spanning all books to date.

Boyflea maintains:-

All Harry Potter characters and references are solely owned by JK Rowling. I just love the setting.


End file.
